Scrappin' Robins

Ed has been unable to get to Stanford recently and so tells us what he has been up to:

Over the past few months it’s been quite difficult for me to get along to Stanford so I’ve had to find alternative ways to get my birding fix. One such way is via a photographic project that I started working on in October last year. Nothing special really - I just wanted to photograph a particular Robin that turned up at the stables where my wife keeps her horses.

I noticed on a few consecutive mornings a Robin sitting quite nicely on the old wooden fence posts. I decided it would make a nice photo. The problem was getting close enough. Even with my 400mm lens fitted to the camera, and being particularly cautious in my approach he still proved to be very timid.

Over a period of months I have been feeding the Robin in an attempt to gain its trust so I can get closer.

At first the Robin was very wary, remaining in the trees and hedges until I was out of sight. Whilst I stood in the stables the Robin was content to approach the food and I could watch his behaviour without disturbing him. Over a number of weeks I continued to feeding him twice a day. I eventually got to the stage whereby I could stand outside the stables and he was still content to visit my feeding posts.

Not too much to my surprise in December a second Robin appeared at the feeding posts and was quite rapidly followed by a third. Sticking to my routine of feeding them twice a day and then carrying on with the jobs that needed to be done the birds have now become far more comfortable with my presence.  By January I was now able to put the food out and the Robins would now come within about six feet.  Even if I stopped and stood still to watch them, they didn’t seem too bothered and were quite happy to continue feeding. In February I decided the time had come introduce the camera again and to see how they would react.

All went well; they didn’t seem bothered by its presence in the slightest. On a bright, sunny and snowy day I decide to give it a go at getting some photo’s of the birds. I was hoping to get some action shots of the birds landing on the feeding posts. I was later than anticipated in getting to the stables. I quickly set up the camera on a tripod and placed seed on the post about ten feet in front of the camera.  It only took a couple minutes for them to appear and I was able to get some initial images of them.

Some of the better images can be seen below:

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2011 - year of the Blackcap

We've now written our 2011 Annual Review and it can be found, along with all the data from 2011, on our Ringing Statistics page

2011 Summary

• An excellent, record-breaking year with 5727 birds ringed at Stanford Reservoir from a total 8672 birds processed.

• Most warbler species were ringed in record numbers, as were Tree Sparrow, Linnet, Reed Bunting and Greenfinch. An unprecedented warbler and finch autumn movement was observed. However, our success in ringing thrushes during the winter of 2010/11 was not repeated in 2011/12 as the birds were virtually absent due to the mild conditions.

• The breeding season was good with 161 nests recorded. No obvious impact was observed from the previous hard winter (with the possible exception of Barn Owls).

• Higher than average controls were recorded (19), but the recovery rate was poor (only 11 recoveries in total for the whole year and only 4 birds of the 5727 ringed in 2011 have been recovered to date) .

• Environmental work effort has been higher and more successful than ever before.

• Website and Blog features were expanded during 2011.

• Stanford Ringing Group has taken on more new trainees and helpers during 2011 than in previous years.

And finally, for Stanford Ringing Group, 2011 was definitely the year of the Blackcap, with 710 ringed at Stanford Reservoir. Never before have we ringed so many birds of one species in a single year.

Ed Succumbs to Temptation

With varying numbers but some days as many as 20 Short-eared Owls being reported throughout the month at a site not too many miles from Stanford, Ed finally succumbed to the temptation, went to see them and managed a photograph.

Here is his report:

On Sunday 20^th November I finally managed to take a trip across to the site at Maidwell in Northants to see if I could see the abundance of Short Eared Owls that had been reported there.

The day had been quite misty and following a break in the weather I headed off mid afternoon. I chose to walk the last mile, although you can drive, and on approaching the site I saw my first Shortie take to the wing from a tree not too far from the track that I was following.

The site had pockets of photographers dotted along the track so finding the right spot to stand wasn’t too difficult to work out.

I didn’t have to wait long either, in less than two minutes there was one flying around, swooping down low over the scrub and periodically landing. After that they seemed to be everywhere, but the most I counted at any one time was four. At one point two of the owls had a dispute and a mid-flight brawl but unfortunately they were too far away to photograph.

I was however treated to one flying quite close and passing within 30 metres or so as it went to the field behind to hunt up and down the hedgerow.

My visit was quite short lived, after only being at the site for half an hour the fog rolled back in sealing off any chances of seeing the owls any more.

A Dutch Control and other Goodies

The perfect ringing conditions continued at Stanford for the last two weeks with overcast grey skies, reasonably flat calm mornings and no rain but there are no birds.  The Hawthorn bushes are laden with larger than normal berries awaiting the winter thrushes that so far have only appeared in small numbers with flocks generally consisting of ten birds or less.

Hawthorn berries for the taking

Mixed finch flocks are also a bit scarce as the expected Chaffinch numbers have failed to materialise so far, despite there being a reasonable harvest of Beech mast on the "Top Road" [the road on the Leicester side of the Reservoir from which the main entrance to the Reservoir can be accessed].

On Monday 7th, Intrepid Adam managed a solo session and ringed 23 new birds which included 11 Tree Sparrows and 3 Yellowhammers (always a good bird for Stanford) and amongst his 44 retraps was well rewarded by controlling our first Dutch Robin (NLA AT92405) - yes thank you - we have heard all the jokes about Robin Van Persie and 'was it trapped in the Dyke net ride?'

Masai Mick and I ventured out the next day to target any thrushes that might be around - we managed 8 new Redwing and 7 new Goldfinches amongst the paltry 23 new birds (with 10 retraps).

On Saturday 12th practically the whole group turned out such that we were able to split the effort with Masai Mick, Richard, Debbie and Emma ringing at the Top Road whilst, Adam, Webmaster Mike, Ed, Dawn and I netted from the 'Berries Boundary net ride' round to the 'Dyke Boundary ride'.  This action proved worthwhile as a total of 93 new birds were ringed and a further 49 retraps processed.  The 63 new birds on the Top Road primarily consisted of 25 Great Tits, 15 Blue Tits, 15 Chaffinches, a Goldcrest and yet another Treecreeper whilst a Nuthatch was amongst the 30 retraps.  Meanwhile the 'A' Team based on the old Railtrack sought quality rather than quantity and their 30 new birds consisted of 5 Redwing, 2 Fieldfare, [Ed christening his new pliers with his first ever Fieldfare], 2 Yellowhammers and a Green Woodpecker - the second this year but only the 20th that we have ever ringed at this site. 

Ed poses with his new pliers and his first Fieldfare

Ed put his pliers down for a while to take this photo of his 2nd Fieldfare

Female Green Woodpecker

Masai Mick and I ventured out once more on Tuesday 15th and our new birds comprised of singletons of Wren, Woodpigeon, Great Spotted Woodpecker, Goldfinch, Coal Tit, Blackbird, and Song Thrush with 6 Tree Sparrows bringing the total to 13 new birds.  However the effort was worthwhile as amongst the 16 retraps was a control adult male Lesser Redpoll (is L082272 yours?)

Control adult male Lesser Redpoll

Is L082272 your bird?

Intrepid Adam and Webmaster Mike tackled the Top Road today and their 31 birds consisted of 9 Longtailed Tits, 4 Blue Tits, 6 Great Tits, 4 Chaffinches and yet another Treecreeper whilst their 29 retraps were predominantly Great Tits.

The totals for the period:

7th - 17th November

Reasonable totals resulting from a good deal of effort - thanks to all involved.

Perfect Conditions

We had pretty much perfect conditions for ringing last week at Stanford - muggy, overcast grey mornings with little or no wind and so the results of my three sessions on Tuesday (with Masai Mick & Webmaster Mike), Thursday with Masai Mick and on Saturday with Adam and trainees Ed, Dawn, Debbie and Simon were a tad disappointing. (Emma's car decided that winter had already arrived and refused to start and so, after half an hour of waking the neighbours, she decided to give it best and texted to say she would not be coming).

Without the Goldfinches, Tree Sparrows and Lesser Redpolls in reasonable numbers there would have been very little to report at all.

The totals for the week are:

First week of November Totals

Outrageous October

Masai Mick reflects on the last month

A ‘scintillating’ September has been followed by an ‘outrageous’ October, a month in which we’ve ringed 933 birds of 31 species. 

Warblers continued to move through Stanford at the start of the month in reasonable numbers.  They then stopped for a week or two, before a few more Blackcaps appeared.  We’d like to think these later birds are of German origin.  Wouldn’t it be wunderbar if someone would recover one to confirm the theory!

During early October, Blue and Great Tits started to build up again at the feeding station.  We suspected that this was due to post juvenile dispersal and, on cue, we got a control Blue Tit (L263891) on the 5th followed by another (L263932) on the 14th.  Both birds were from the same series of rings and with a bit of detective work determined they had been ringed at Geddington near Northampton.

We’ve also had an impressive passage of finches, notably Greenfinch (149 ringed), Goldfinch (85) and Lesser Redpoll (94).  None of the ringed birds were subsequently retrapped.  On the 29^th, we controlled a Lesser Redpoll (P545435), which we have discovered was probably ringed in Telford.  We also controlled a Chaffinch (Y184175) on the same day (our sleuthing skills deserting us on this ring, so we’ll just have to wait for the BTO to tell us who’s it is – unless you know?!) 

We must also mention the good old Tree Sparrow - this month we have ringed 128 of these birds and also controlled a colour ringed one (TR27180).  It’s a record year for this species at Stanford – we should soon comfortably reach 500 birds ringed.

But what has happened to the thrushes?  We saw a flock of 1500 Redwing mid month but very little since.  Blackbird and Song Thrush are non-existent whilst we have only had the occasional 50-100 Fieldfare overhead.

Our October ringing totals can be viewed here October Stats

5,000 Up, Control Tresp and more

With the absence of a ringing blog for the last two weeks you might think that we have not been busy at Stanford.  Far from it, we have had several ringing sessions there resulting in 600 birds being processed but yours truly has been tardy in writing them up so here is a quick resume to get us back on track.

Thursday13^th October

Masai Mick, Webmaster and I arrived pre-dawn to a damp, dull, still and overcast Stanford.  The dampness in the air quickly went but the overcast conditions remained all morning and were in fact ideal ringing conditions.  We managed 137 new birds (and 30 retraps).  The new birds of note were 3 Blackcaps, 23 Tree Sparrows, 14 Lesser Redpolls and 17 Reed Bunting.

We also controlled a colour ringed Tree Sparrow TR27180

Control TR 27180

Control TR 27180

Lesser Redpoll

Friday 14^th

The two Micks had a good session with 83 new (9 retraps), ringing our first Redwings (4) of the year, another Blackcap, 7 Tree Sparrows, 29 Greenfinches, 4 Lesser Redpolls, 5 Reed Buntings and a Yellowhammer (our fourth this year of a species that is now all too infrequent at this site)

Saturday 15^th

A cold morning with a touch of ground frost meant that some of the new trainees experienced their first cold conditions such that the conversation quickly turned to hot water bottles, hand warmers and other such devices – I am sure trainees used to be made of sterner stuff!  A good morning’s ringing with 95 new birds which included 2 Redwing, 2 Goldcrests, 14 Tree Sparrows, 35 Greenfinches, 5 Lesser Redpolls, 4 Reed Buntings and another Yellowhammer (and 25 retraps)

Cold Trainee # 1

Cold Trainee # 2

Redwing

Yellowhammer

male Goldcrest

Monday 17^th

The two Micks had a reasonable session as Masai Mick recalls:

Ringing on Monday was quite subdued with only 68 birds caught, of these 54 were new ringed.  But it was also a day of celebration as we hit a significant total of 5000 new ringed birds for the year (at Stanford) and of these roughly half have been warblers, so come on you ringers around the country get catching them.  Recently we have been catching good numbers of Greenfinch and Goldfinch with some Lesser Redpoll interspersed, which is not a very usual occurrence for us.  Redwing and Fieldfare have just turned up over the last week or so and we are hoping to emulate last year’s sterling efforts with another 800+ thrushes this year, weather willing and an understanding wife!!!!

Thursday 20^th

Another 54 new birds today (12 retraps) included a single Redwing, 8 Tree Sparrows, 6 Greenfinches, 16 Lesser Redpoll and surprisingly two Pied Wagtails - the three ringed this year are the first at Stanford since 1993.

Pied Wagtail

male Lesser Redpoll

another fine male

Saturday 22^nd

68 new birds (23 retraps) were more of the same really, but never boring – 1 Redwing, another Blackcap (that’s 706 this year), 13 Tree Sparrows, 22 Greenfinch, 6 Goldfinch, 1 Linnet, 2 Reed Buntings (making 280 this year), and 8 Lesser Redpolls.

One of the Redpolls was a “Goldenpoll” and is described by Mike Alibone on his blog here

The totals for the period: 

13th to 22nd October Totals